Re-branding ccTLDs

[kubativity]

As you are all aware, there has been a trend in the domain industry to re-brand domain extensions to mean something other than what the domain was intended to be. The most successful example is .tv being used to mean video and rich media sites. Also, the .la extension of Laos is being marketed as a Los Angeles domain.

.TV --> tv, video, media rich sites
.FM --> Radio and media
.LA --> Los Angeles
.WS --> Web Site?
.VG --> video game(s)
.CC --> Credit Card/ or just generic "wannabe" gTLD
.PH --> phone
.VU --> virtual user
.SC --> science, sex club, Scotland, source
.NI --> Northern Ireland
.SR --> senior
.ST --> street
.TF --> tax free
.TK --> te koop (Dutch for "for sale")
.NU --> new, now (only applicable in Dutch and Swedish)
.DJ --> disc jockey
.NR --> number
.MU --> music
.GR --> group
.AR --> Arab
.TR --> transport
.TM --> trademark
.ID --> Personal ID
.vc --> Venture Capital
.DJ --> Disc Jockey
.MR --> mister
.MS --> miss
.BA --> Baltimore
.MD --> medical doctor
.SU --> States United
.TO --> Toronto
.CA --> California
.PK --> Poker!
.GD --> GoDaddy/GreatDomains
.ME --> Montenegro's new ccTLD, will be a great alternative to .NAME.
.CD --> Compact Disc
... any others?


What are your opinions on this sort of thing? Are there any draw backs?

 

[Jackie]

A while back I posted some ideas and possible meanings for the .IN extension. Let me dig up the thread.

http://www.namepros.com/domain-name-discussion/384527-in-doesnt-have-to-be-india.html

 

[Kate]

Honestly it looks more like novelty item than business.
IMO not really a good idea but certain TLDs have been more or less successful, the most obvious example being .tv.

 

[Gerrit]

There are only a few ones where it works out well though. To use .TV or .FM for sites using a lot of media files makes perfect sense. Things like .WS for website is already less obvious but just good enough to make it work. However, other such examples (such as branding .CC as credit card) won't work IMO because few internet users will create a link between the extention and the word you're trying to brand it as.

 

[kubativity]

I will keep a list of them at the top of this thread.

please let me know of any that you know of!

 

[neroux]

There are only a few ones where it works out well though. To use .TV or .FM for sites using a lot of media files makes perfect sense. Things like .WS for website is already less obvious but just good enough to make it work. However, other such examples (such as branding .CC as credit card) won't work IMO because few internet users will create a link between the extention and the word you're trying to brand it as.

Those are good points.

 

[bricio]

i have heard about .VG

some people say it is video game
it is difficult to say something about this but as you posted .TV is the one most successful

 

[Gerrit]

.VG for videogame is another farce. This rebranding of ccTLD's only works when the abbreviation is commonly known amongst people. Everyone will understand "let's sit down and watch TV" so .TV for television is perfect. However, nobody will say "I will pay with my CC", so .CC for creditcard is just not obvious enough. Dito with .VG, hardly anyone will know what you're talking about if you say "let's play a VG", because simply nobody will use that abbreviation for VideoGame in real life. The power of .TV and .FM is that these abbreviations are internationally known by thousands and thousands of people.

Maybe one exception that can be re-branded although only in some countries, is .NU . "Nu" means 'now' in Dutch, and it means 'new' in Swedish. So if your site targets the Dutch, Belgian or Swedish market, you can easily use a .NU domain. However, outside of those linguistic borders, .NU is also not rebrandable. .TV and .FM are the only ones that you can rebrand regardless of what country or language.

By the way, here is a short list of attempts made to rebrand ccTLD's:


.PH = phone
.CC = creditcard
.VU = virtual user
.SC = science, sex club, Scotland
.NI = Northern Ireland
.SR = senior
.ST = street
.TF = tax free
.TK = te koop (Dutch for "for sale")
.WS = WebSite, World Site
.NU = new, now (only applicable in Dutch and Swedish)
.DJ = disc jockey
.NR = number
.TV = television
.FM = radio




IMO only the bottom two make perfect sense, while .NU and .WS make somewhat sense. The rest IMO are rebranding attempts that will never truly work for a large audience.

 

[tansks]

.SH = ShangHai, China

 

[Gerrit]

I forgot .CD for the music business. Although their attempt to rebrand their ccTLD seems very low-profile.

Also there's .MD for the medical world.



If you are creative you can create many more:

.MU - music
.GR - group
.AR - Arab
.TR - transport
...

The problem is, no internet user will make the link, so the domain becomes quite worthless then. Unless there would be a succesful marketing campaign to rebrand the ccTLDs like that, but even then it is very risky. Unless the extention is a commonly used abbreviation in daily life (.TV, .CD, .FM ...) it will probably not work on large scale.

 

[Jeffrey]

.TM - trademark - 100$ reg fee!!!

 

[jido]

.id Personal ID
.vc Venture Capital (mentioned at Namepros)

I actually think .sr for Senior and .dj for Disc Jockey could work quite well, the acronyms are used internationally.

BTW .tm is 10 years minimum reg isn't it?

 

[wasistdas]

mr - mister
ms - miss
ba - Baltimore
md - medical doctor
su - States United

 

[800ml]

.TO ---> Toronto
( already being used with with this in mind for many domains)

.CA ---> California
( google for ".ca Names" as an example and guess what? california keywords come up up)

 

[fixxation]

.PK --> Poker!

 

[tansks]

.GD -> GoDaddy/GreatDomains

Recently register coupon(s).GoDaddy, Premium/Brandable.GreatDomains.

Am I creative enough? :p

 

[Gerrit]

.id Personal ID
.vc Venture Capital (mentioned at Namepros)

I actually think .sr for Senior and .dj for Disc Jockey could work quite well, the acronyms are used internationally.

BTW .tm is 10 years minimum reg isn't it?

.ID for personal name domains, or .CV for curriculum vitae would work well, but neither the Indonesian nor the Cape Verde registries seem keen on foreign registrations as both require a local address. They could get more out of their ccTLD but they will need to change that policy and allow foreign registrations then.

.ME, Montenegro's new ccTLD, will be a great alternative to .NAME.

 

[sundari]

How did we forget .IT, .AG, .MP, .PW, .MA, .SE, .PR, .AI, .EC, .GP and .LC???

.IT - Info.Technology, Income Tax, Institute of Technology, Internet Television,

.AG - Aktiengesellschaft (Public companies in German speaking nations), Agriculture

.MP - Mobile Phone, Member of Parliament, Media Player, Mega Pixel, Micro Processor

.PW - Password

.MA - Massachusetts, Martial arts, Master of Arts, Madagascar, Medical Assistant

.SE - Software Engineering, Search Engine, Stock Exchange, Sex Education, Sony Ericsson, Special Edition

.PR - Page Rank, Press Release, Public Relations, Power Rangers

.AI - Artificial Intelligence, American/Australian Idol

.EC - Ecommerce, European Community, Election Commission, Extended coverage

.GP - General practitioner, Grand Prix, Gross profit

.LC - Liability Company, Local Currency, Local Council

 

[kubativity]

I think we should differentiate between those that are actively being marketed as their alter-ego!

.tv is very storng because has "officially" been rebranded
.la has also been given official status at www.la
.fm is also very strong for web radio sites

I will go as far as to say that these are the only rebranded tlds that hold any authority as actually being what they stand for.